Talking about conspiracy theories, I bumped into a friend at the SET drop off yesterday and he whispered in my ear that he thought some of the girls looked much older than 10 or 11, he said he wouldn't be surprised if older siblings were sitting the test on behalf of their younger siblings. I just laughed and said good luck to anyone who has to go to those extremes to get their DD into a grammar school.
I also had to shake my head when I saw a mum forcing her DD eat what looked like digestive biscuits before the test. The poor DD was nearly in tears saying she was not hungry and the mum kept insisting that she must eat

.
And talking about kids jeopardizing their own grammar school chances intentionally, my DD said that the girl sitting next to her in the exam hall didn't mark her answers on the answer sheet, but circled them on the actual test paper instead. Why none of the attendants picked this up during the test, I don't know, but apparently she had put her hand up after both tests were finished and said to the attendant that she had only just realized that she had not marked her answers on the answer sheets. The attendant walked her out of the room, so my DD didn't her what her response was. But again, can't help but feel that this was probably a DD who had had enough of being pushed into a situation that she didn't want to be in.
DD also mentioned that there were girls who started crying during the test and were removed from the room. The pressure that some DD's are under is way more than any 10 or 11 year old should have to deal with.